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Thiedish
Thiedish is a direct descendant of Middle English and a sibling to English and Scots. Unlike English, it preserves most of the original lexis inherited from Old English. Comparable to Scots, Thiedish has moderate influences from Old Norse, Low German, French and Latin. Old English and Modern English both exert considerable influence upon new vocabulary. Setting The language developed as a scholarly lingua franca under the auspices of the English Academy whose primary objective was to establish grammar rules and standardisation for the newly burgeoning Saxon tongue throughout Mediaeval Britain. Phonology 'Alphabet' Thiedish uses the Frankish/Carolingian alphabet, a descendant of the Latin, in conjunction with some Old English letters. Combinations of letters can be used to produce single phonemes, as in English. Consonants Vowels Digraphs Phonotactics Consonant clusters are common, and phonotactic rules for Thiedish are the same as Old and Middle English. Clusters 'kn-', 'gn-', 'fn-', etc. are pronounced as they are written. Basic Grammar Typology Thiedish is a Subject Verb Object (SVO) language, and specifically, a V2 language. Gender There are three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. All common nouns are neuter, except where the sex is clearly discernable. Words such as: mann, boi, bull, draak, fader, sun ("son"), cock, kining ("king") are masculine. Feminines nouns are: wimman, wijf, læddiȝ, girl, muoder, swester, henn, quien ("queen"), etc. Many words can take either a masculine or feminine gender depending on the sex of the person or object being referred to, like: baker, larjow ("teacher"), hund ("dog"), fugel, dier ("animal"). In such cases, ðe larjow would be "the male teacher", while ða larjow would be "the female or lady teacher". Articles Articles are similar to those in other West Germanic languages. Definite Articles ("The") The neuter switch-forms ðe and ðet operate in the same way that English a'' and ''an do: when the following noun begins with a consonant, the form ðe is used ("ðe land"), otherwise ðet is the default article ("ðet æppel"). Definite articles are not declined, except in the genitive case as in ðe buok ðes manns ("the book of the man/the man's book"), and for number ða æppels ("the apples"). Indefinite Articles ("A/An") Pronouns Demonstrative Pronouns ("That/Those") Demonstrative Pronouns ("This/These") Interrogative Pronouns ("Who/What") Relative Pronouns ("That/Who/Which") Personal Pronouns Nouns Nouns fall into two classes: Strong Nouns and Weak Nouns. Strong Nouns The majority of nouns fall into the Strong category, even nouns belonging to Weak declensions in Old English. All Strong Nouns are declined alike, regardless of gender. The Strong declension is declined as follows: Weak Nouns The Weak declension is preserved only for nouns derived from Weak Adjectives, as in Charles ðe '''Greate, or ''ða '''deaden in Crijst'', and is used to refer to a specified individual with a certain quality or qualities: ðe '''boalde' ("''the bold one"). The Weak declension is declined as follows: Dictionary Numerals Example text The Lord's Prayer in Thiedish Ouser Fader, ðie art in hevens ȝehálged sij ðijn naam. Cum ðijn rijch, ȝewéarþ ðijn will, on earþ as hit is in hevens. Ouser dæȝliche bread ȝiv ous tuodǽȝ, ond forȝív ous ouser schilds as wie forȝíveþ ouser schildands. Ond lead ous nee intuo costning, ok alíes ous fram ivel. Ðonn ðijn is ðe rijch, ond ðe meaght, ond ðe wulder, foréaver. Suoþlich. Category:Languages